Testimony continues Wednesday in the Word of Life Church trial of Sarah Ferguson -- accused in the beating of both Lucas and Christopher Leonard, her half-brothers.
Lucas Leonard died of his injuries in October 2015 and Christopher Leonard suffered severe injures. Ferguson is the first person to stand trial in the case. Last week the boys' father, Bruce Leonard, entered a guilty plea to assault charges and admitted to beating the boys.
On Monday, Christopher Leonard testified in Oneida County Court that he inappropriately touched Sarah Ferguson's children -- his nieces and nephews. Tuesday, the boys' 16-year-old sister told the court she was inappropriately touched, but not raped, by both of her brothers on more than one occasion, and it lasted until she was 13 years old.
The prosecution called investigator Samuel Thomson to the stand Wednesday morning. He works for the state police as a computer forensic scientist, where his job is to extract information from cell phones.
In October 2015, Thomson examined an iPhone that was given to him from the New Hartford Police Department. Thomson extracted data from the phone, including some deleted content. He testified that, even if you deleted a text message, they can still extract that as long as it was recently deleted. Using software, the forensic scientist can narrow down which information is allowed to be viewed through a warrant.
Thomson said there were more than 40,000 text messages extracted from the phone submitted into evidence.
The defense has no questions for Thompson, and the prosecution called John Lamatia, another state police investigator, to take the stand. Lamantia also works in the computer science division and extracts data off cellular phones.
He testified that he did an extraction off of a Samsung phone for the New Hartford Police Department. The pre-paid phone has been identified as belonging to Bruce Leonard.
Lamantia's testimony was brief, and there was no cross examination from the defense again.
Dr. Leo Sullivan was the people's next witness; he is the director of trauma at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Utica, and a trauma surgeon.
Sullivan was called in to treat Christopher Leonard. He says he was extremely tender anywhere they tried to touch him. He said he remembered Christopher was severely bruised all over his body, especially on his back and genitals. According to him, there was significant swelling to his nose, which was treated, and says there was severe bruising to Christopher's right forearm.
Sullivan said the bruising on Christopher's arm was a defensive injury. It would have happened when he was trying to block an attack. He also said Christopher had deep bruising that was shown in a CAT scan of his back. Sullivan says the injuries were caused by blunt trauma.
Sullivan said Christopher Leonard lost three to four units of blood from internal bleeding.
Sullivan described the injuries on Christopher's groin area. He says there was extensive bruising. Sullivan says this scar would be caused by being hit with a curved wire or cable. He then described a curved scar on Christopher's knee. He said he's seen this before in child abuse cases. Sullivan says this scar would be caused by being hit with a curved wire or cable.
Sullivan told the court that there was extensive bruising to Christopher's groin area, and in his opinion, a whip or a cord could do this type of damage.
Looking at a photo of Christopher's rear end and thighs, Sullivan said the photos are very disturbing, saying "this is consistent with deep trauma." He testified, "it's really hard to get that much black and blue on a palm," saying that area of the body doesn't normally bruise and that force or repetition would cause that type of bruising.
"There was air outside his lung, which is a very serious problem,” Sullivan said. "He had air in his epidural space." He told the court if there had been any more air there, it could have caused brain damage.
Sullivan said Christopher was also suffering from kidney damage because of the excessive bruises.
"He lost about 50 percent of kidney function. That was very serious,” Sullivan said.
He testified that Christopher Leonard was in the intensive care unit for two days to address his kidney care, saying if he didn't get fluids through an IV, his kidneys would have deteriorated.
Sullivan said he has seen this type of muscle breakdown in someone who was crushed under a car. He said Leonard’s wounds are consistent with being whipped repeatedly, and that if he didn't receive medical attention, Christopher Leonard would have died within 5 to 10 days.
On cross examination, Sullivan said it's hard to tell if all of the bruises came from the same incident, but that he believed the injuries would have been less than 48 hours old. He testified that if Christopher had stayed home to recover, if he wasn't on strict bed rest, it could have made internal bleeding worse.
Investigator Brad Pietryka was the next witness to take the stand Wednesday. He is the lead investigator in the Word of Life case. Pietryka says he was assigned to interview Deborah Leonard to figure out where the actual crime occurred, and also interviewed Traci Irwin.
He says that Deborah and Bruce Leonard, Joseph, Daniel and Traci Irwin, David Morey and Christopher Leonard were all interviewed. There was a search warrant issued to collect Sarah Ferguson's clothes and take photographs of her, and Daniel Irwin's cell phone was also seized.
Two search warrants were executed at the Word of Life Church following the interviews, including of electronic devices. The electronic devices that were seized: cell phones, laptops and other computers, cameras, thumb drives, hard drives, etc.
The defense started cross examination and Pietryka says there was no communication with Sarah Ferguson from that day, and that no phone was ever seized from her. He told the court that several calls were made from Bruce Leonard's phone the day of the beatings, before 911 was ever called.
Pietryka testified that another iPhone was sent out for an extraction, and there was communication between this phone and 'Sarah's new phone,’ and said there were hundreds of texts between this iPhone and 'Sarah's cell.' He identified it as Traci Irwin’s cell phone.
Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara said Traci Irwin's cell is relevant because there are numerous texts from Sarah Ferguson about how she feels about Lucas Leonard, and that he wants to ask Ferguson about those text messages during cross examination if and when she testified.
Pietryka was also asked about the distance between the church and the Leonard household, and the body types of the Irwin men.
Pietryka did say they located SD cards within the church, but did not find any video from that night.
The next witness to take the stand was Susan Blatt, a pediatrician with the Child Advocacy Center. Six children were examined by Blatt to determine if they had been subjected to sexual abuse. Blatt said that the absence of signs for sexual abuse doesn't mean sexual abuse could be ruled out.
After Blatt, Bruce Leonard took the stand to testify against his step-daughter, a stipulation of his plea deal. He said he had suspicions regarding Christopher and Lucas abusing their younger sister, but he never had any proof.
Bruce said during a counseling session at church on October 11, 2015, Christopher was being asked questions about molestation, and when he wouldn't answer, he was punched in the stomach by Joseph Irwin and slapped in the face by Linda Morey.
Bruce said someone gave him a cord and he whipped Luke and also whipped Christopher. He said he hit them both with the cord about 20 times each. Bruce said Sarah began whipping her brothers, hard, in the groin region and that if either boy fell down while being whipped they were forced to back up by Joe Irwin and David Morey.
"We didn't know what we would be, what we would do at home?" Bruce said.
Bruce said the boys were split up to be talked to, and that no one gave Lucas anything to stop his penis from bleeding.
The prosecution ended their questioning and the defense will do their cross examination of Bruce Leonard Thursday. Sarah Ferguson cried several times during her step-father's testimony.
Judge Dwyer said to more doctors are expected to testify Thursday.